Village Roadshow profit down despite big debut for water park

Theme park operator Village Roadshow's profit has fallen despite a bumper first season at its new Sydney water park. More than 700,000 people visited Sydney's Wet'n'Wild in its first five months of operation, helping it make a $4.1 million pre-tax profit, even with $5 million in pre-opening costs. But profit in the year to June from its Gold Coast theme parks, including Movie World, Sea World and Wet'n'Wild, dropped from the previous year to $28 million, due partly to spending on a joint marketing campaign with the Queensland government.